


Jäger Lives

by Para



Series: Jäger Hunt [4]
Category: Girl Genius
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-09
Updated: 2016-02-09
Packaged: 2018-05-19 07:37:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5959095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Para/pseuds/Para
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Lady Heterodyne was furious, and Gkika was pleased.</p><p>The fourth missing jäger is found.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jäger Lives

**Author's Note:**

> Conclusion 1: No way in hell am I going to get the last four fics done in time for the fluff to go up on Valentine's Day. I could get one or two done. _Maybe_.
> 
> Conclusion 2: I so _do not care_ , ahahahaha Tahir is getting a multichapter and probably his own entire series spawning off of this, it's going to be great. Tarvek can _wait_ for his fluff. (Also, I begin to suspect that Adiduck might be an enabler, but as long as the plots are this entertaining the enabling is forgiven.)
> 
> [Dana](http://notapaladin.tumblr.com/post/130664184414/dana-vasilescu-jaeger-cavalry-seen-on-the-left) [Vasilescu](http://notapaladin.tumblr.com/post/131584171239/outtakes-that-didnt-make-it-into-the-latest) belongs to [lilithqueen](http://archiveofourown.org/users/lilithqueen/pseuds/lilithqueen), and... well, you'll see why she's perfect for this.
> 
> Warnings for this fic: Nothing happens in the fic itself, but deaths are mentioned, as is loss of limbs, and... well... I don't think a construct animal eating a jäger (or human) counts as cannibalism _exactly_ , but that's also mentioned.

The Lady Heterodyne was furious, and Gkika was pleased.

The fourth place that Agatha claimed a jäger could be found was halfway up a mountain, and there was no jäger there. Agatha wasn’t bothered, saying that her machine said the jäger was actually below them, probably in a cave. Gkika hadn’t wanted to go into town—it was a spark’s town, and had killed three jägers over the last twenty years, and there hadn’t been time to send Marcu away first. They’d found hats, but no bodies of the three; Higgs had snuck in after each one and reported no captive jägers or pieces of them in labs or any other sign of attempts to study them, but Gkika would appreciate being sure. Higgs was good, but he could miss things as well, and it took a powerful spark to kill three jagers, even separately. But it was the Heterodyne's decision.

Now that the Lady Heterodyne had the local spark by the front of his shirt and was snarling at him, Gkika was more than content with how it had worked out. She was still going to keep Marcu nearby to keep an eye on him for a while, but even he seemed at least as pleased by the sight of the Heterodyne terrifying the town over what he’d lost there as he was hurt by the reminder.

The Heterodyne had a death ray strapped across her back, one across her chest, one attached to her belt, and one in hand. That one wasn’t pointed at anyone, but the other hand had hauled the local spark down by his collar, and he didn’t seem to dare struggle as she ranted at him. “—so you are going to show us exactly where you’ve been putting my jägers, you are going to get me everything I ask for immediately, and if you _ever_ touch one of my jägers again, then I will be testing how long it takes me to _burn everything you have ever built to the ground_ , starting with _you_. Am I _clear_?”

“Um—” one of the spark’s minions said in a small voice, “he works with a lot of metal. And sometimes stone.”

“Dose burn,” Gkika offered cheerfully. Anything burned, in her experience. “Hyu chust haff to get dem hot enuff.”

“Thank you, General,” the Heterodyne said. There were a few squeaks and scared gasps from the minions of the town. So the Heterodyne was doing the scaring people thing at least a little bit intentionally, that was good. She hauled the spark around to face the road they’d come into the town by, and shoved him toward it. “Now _start moving_.”

“I—I have walking clanks—”

“And I don’t trust you. _Start walking_.”

The spark wouldn’t be able to get away or to hurt anyone unless he happened to be a bomb, which Gkika had seen but didn’t think this one had done. Still, if the Heterodyne was interested in intimidating the spark and her boys would enjoy it, Gkika would do her part. Marcu would enjoy getting to scare him personally, but he also might kill the spark preemptively if he was provoked, so someone who would notice and stop him had better be there too. “Dimo und Marcu, vhy dun hyu valk vith him. Meke sure he dun trip or ennyting.”

Marcu grinned and stalked ahead to get right in the spark’s space by his side. Dimo gave Gkika an exasperated look, and followed.

The spark smelled terrified as he led them out of town. Gkika wasn’t sure if the Heterodyne was still carrying her death ray in hand as she walked behind him to make a point, or just because she hadn’t thought of putting it away yet. The three humans walked behind her, speculating more than loudly enough for the spark to hear about what the Heterodyne’s ancestors had done in similar situations (those being, any time they were annoyed with a particular spark) and what the current Lady might do. All the jägers followed behind them, and quickly started offering details and bragging about their parts in previous punishing rampages. The Lady Heterodyne sighed at one point but didn’t tell them to stop, so Gkika started adding her own memories as well. A lot of them had been forgotten by the humans, it was a tragedy.

The spark had not been exaggerating when he claimed to have dropped the jägers his clanks and constructs killed down a bottomless hole in the ground. The intelligent bats that he’d claimed to be feeding them to Gkika was less certain of, but the hole in the mountain he led them to at least didn’t have a visible bottom. It just vanished into darkness.

Marcu abandoned the spark to crouch by the hole, staring into it with his entire body tense. Dimo followed him, and kicked a nearby rock in. It was nearly a minute later that Gkika heard the rock hit some sort of bottom.

“…Maria vould haff fit down dis,” Marcu said a minute later. He still didn’t look away from the hole.

Gkika looked at the hole too. Assuming it didn’t get narrower as it went down, Maria would have fit down it with maybe a hand’s width to spare. So would Ioana, Nico and Mircea, of the still missing. But they’d lost two others here. “Artur _might_ haff fit, bot Petre vould _not_.”

The Heterodyne rounded on the spark, death ray still in hand. Gkika was beginning to think the Heterodyne really had just forgotten she was carrying it. “If you’ve _lied_ to me—”

“I didn’t!” The spark backed up a step, hands in the air. “I really didn’t! We put everything down here—criminals, plague victims—my bats need to eat, you know! We just cut up anything that didn’t fit.”

“ _Why_ are you keeping your bats in a hole in the ground three kilometers out of town instead of building them a nice loft somewhere or something?”

“I did! This was just their feeding place. Corpses stink, you know! And the exercise was good for them.”

“Well then maybe you should have _not fed them corpses_.”

“That was the whole point! They’re meant to pick up traits from what they consume, there’s no point if I just fed them animals! But then they stopped coming back, or doing anything I tell them, they’ve been _raiding_ the town for food the last few years, not even for things they’re supposed to eat, sometimes things that aren’t even _food_ , I don’t know why they’ve betrayed me, my beautiful carnivorous bats—”

The Heterodyne sounded exasperated as she interrupted. “Aren’t they intelligent? Have you tried _asking_ them?”

The spark drooped. “Well, you see—I forgot to make them able to talk. All they can do is make bat noises.”

“Lady Heterodyne,” Dimo said, “do hyu really care about de bats?”

The Heterodyne blinked. “…No. No, you’re right, Dimo, the bats aren’t the point. Right.” She pointed at the spark with the hand holding her death ray, and he took another step back. “ _You_. I am going to build a machine to make this hole bigger, and you are going to get me everything I need for it. Do you have paper?”

“Er—for digging?”

“For a _list_.”

“No, I—not with me—”

“I do,” Alexandra offered. “You can use it.”

“Good.”

The Heterodyne took paper and pencils from Alexandra, and spread them out on a rock that all the humans sat around, with the exception of the spark. The Lady Heterodyne might have allowed him to watch her design the machine too, but Gkika had her own points to make. She clapped a hand on his shoulder and the other over his mouth as he started toward the rock.

Covering his mouth was the right decision. He made a terrified squeak, but it was muffled, and he didn't even try to bite her or anything.

Gkika leaned in next to his ear. “Dun hyu go ennyvere, madboy. Hy tink vhile de Lady iz busy be schould haff a _friendly leedle chat_ ov hour own, yez?”

He didn't seem likely to respond, so Gkika hauled him off without waiting for one. The Heterodyne was already heterodyning, but Agatha didn't seem to ignore as much as many Heterodynes did while working, and these were Gkika's boys.

Lady Agatha cared for them better than many Heterodynes did, and certainly more than her father, but she had other priorities. Her consorts, the town, relative peace over the continent—if the spark didn't betray her, she likely wouldn't do anything worse than threaten him, to avoid war.

Gkika only had two priorities: protecting her boys, and making sure that everyone outside Mechanicsburg knew exactly how terrified they ought to be of the Heterodynes. In this case, those aligned well.

“De Lady Heterodyne iz tryink verra hard to play nize for de boyfriends, zo Hy iz gun eksplain sum tings to hyu….”

~---~---~---~---~

Building the digging machine and a platform that could lower them down it took Agatha and the three humans well into the night, even with the help of Agatha’s little clanks. (Agatha said nothing to Gkika about hauling the spark off while she designed the machine, but quite firmly shut him out of building anything and instead suggested that he sit and talk with the jägers. Gkika interpreted that as approval.)

The spark did have portable lights, which he even volunteered to fetch for them when Agatha started wondering out loud about the fastest way to get light. (Several of Gkika's boys were enthusiastic about Marica's suggestion of setting trees on fire, but the Heterodyne was right that that would have been hard to take into the hole, so they subsided quickly.) After they’d been brought and tested he was sent back to the town with a couple of jäger guards. Agatha said she didn’t think he’d be any more use, but she didn’t want him running away just in case something else came up.

The first time they lowered the platform only Dimo and Oggie went down with one of the lights, at Gkika’s insistence; Agatha had wanted to go first herself. Dimo called up that it was safe and Agatha insisted on going next, so Gkika went with her. The hole went a long way down before widening out into a cavern. Not huge, but all the jägers would fit into it easily.

The second thing she noticed was the bones.

There were thousands of bones; enough for three jägers, easily, but also enough for dozens of humans, and even more animals. Every one of them was entirely clean of flesh, and when Gkika looked, covered in tiny tooth marks.

“This is _ridiculous_ , this is worse than the crypt,” Agatha complained as she pushed a rib aside with her foot so there was a clear space to stand. “How many people has he been tossing down here?”

“Pipple haff more bones den most pipple tink,” Dimo said.

Gkika eyed the bones, looking for skulls. “Looks like forty or feefty, Hy tink, und lotz ov animals.”

Agatha sighed. “I’m telling… no, I’ll tell Gil about this,” she decided. “Can you tell which ones are jägers?”

“…Hy dun know,” Gkika said. She picked one up and sniffed it. “De vuns vit de best noses might be able to.” It wasn’t like there was no smell to the bones, just not enough that she thought she’d be able to tell them apart.

Agatha frowned at the ground, and picked out another few careful steps as the platform started back up. “We can take them all back if we need to. Is there anything else down here?”

“Tonnels,” Oggie said.

“No bogs,” Dimo said.

Agatha looked up and frowned. Gkika agreed. “That’s… strange. I wonder if that’s because of the bats or something else….”

“Ve vill find out vhat is down de tonnels ven more ov my boys iz here,” Gkika said firmly.

“I’ll look around here in the meantime,” Agatha agreed. “Dimo, can you hold the light for me?”

The first cavern didn’t have anything else that Agatha decided was interesting in it, except for the way the bats started swooping into the room, perching on the ceiling or circling the room making a clicking noise, and then swooping back out through the same tunnel. (Marcu kept glaring at them, which Gkika would probably need to figure out the reason for, but later.) Agatha watched them until she noticed that the jägers had started carefully moving all of the bones to a pile near one of the walls. When she did notice she joined them, using the light to comb through the sandy floor and pick out small bones that they’d missed, and carrying them carefully over to a flat space in the wall so that they wouldn’t get lost again.

They had almost finished moving all the bones when a pair of bats flew into the room together, but instead of staying near the ceiling one of them swooped low, just over the jägers’ heads. Marcu lunged at it and it dodged higher, producing a high-pitched and presumably angry shriek.

“Marcu!” Gkika snapped.

He snarled, but didn’t jump at it again. Probably because it had gotten too high. “Eet et Maria! Hyu heard de madboy, dey schteal tings from pipple dey eat, Maria _alvays_ mede dat noise ven she vos listenink for tings dot dun meke sound!”

Gkika was on the other side of the room, so she couldn’t hit Marcu for that. Dimo did for her. “Eediot!”

“Bats _alvays_ meke dat noise,” Gkika said before Marcu could start on being hurt.

“It’s called echolocation,” Agatha filled in. “They produce high-pitched sound and use the echoes to navigate. Not all bats do that, actually, but most do.”

Marcu folded his arms and glared at the bats as they swooped out. “Vell dey vos schtill eatink jägers, dey gots to die.”

“Only if that actually worked, and I’m not sure it would,” Agatha said. “But if someone can catch one, I’ll look at it. It might explain what the radar was picking up.”

“Not hyu, Marcu,” Gkika said. He sulked, but went back to collecting the last bones.

It might have been best if she hadn’t let Marcu come into the cave with them. But there hadn’t been a chance to send him away except with the spark, and Agatha still wanted that one alive. Sending him away now would do more harm than good, so Gkika called him over and made him stay on Agatha’s other side when they started down the tunnel. Gkika wanted to talk to Agatha and ask if she thought it was likely the bats could have become jägerlike enough for her radar to detect them just by eating three dead jägers. (The other alternative was that one of her boys—probably Nico—had jumped down the hole to hide from something and not been able to get out, in which case Gkika would need to hit him for being stupid.) But she would learn which had happened soon enough, and knowing which was most likely wouldn’t change what they did. It was more important to keep Marcu close, even if it was frustrating to not be able to discuss what she wanted.

The tunnel was empty of bones, long, winding, and unexpectedly smooth. Not flat by any means, but the ridges and bumps in it were worn into curves, not sharp edges. As often as Gkika’s boys tripped in the lack of light (they only had two, and while a few of the jägers glowed it wasn’t enough to help most of them very much) that was a good thing, but she still sent half of them back after the first five minutes of walking broken up by yelps, cursing, and bruises. The bats stopped going over their heads, although there were a few instances of bats flying at them down the tunnel, and then turning around (often with a screech) and going back to where they’d come from.

Another five minutes later, and Gkika began to hear the bats’ clicking again. It sounded distant, but like there were a lot of them. “Miz Agatha, de bats iz ahead.”

Agatha turned to look at Gkika. “Um, yes. I assumed they would be.”

“Vy dun ve schtay here, und some of my boys go ahead.”

“They haven’t been aggressive yet,” Agatha said. “And you already have Dimo and Oggie in front.”

She did, but they were only ahead by a meter, and the tunnel would make fighting difficult if the bats did attack. Gkika didn’t expect bats to be very dangerous, but she also had no idea how many there were, or what they could really do. Artur had been venomous, and Heterodynes weren’t so different from humans that giving them battledraught was often a good idea. “Hy vould rather dot more go further ahead.”

Agatha sighed. “Alright, I’ll walk slowly.”

“Hy em—”

Gkika caught Marcu’s shoulder. “Dimo, Oggie, Maxim, und Dana.” The boys had perfected teamwork while detached, and come through much closer to unscathed than any of the other detached packs. Dana had worked with Maxim for decades, gotten through being detached alive despite starting out on her own, and had more interest in and experience with animals than most jägers. “Go.”

The four bounded ahead, and Marcu growled under his breath. Gkika shook him lightly before letting go. He was going to be reckless if there was a fight with the bats; she was keeping him in her sight as long as she could.

A few minutes later the clicking picked up, then dropped off, and there was a shout from Oggie. “Hurry!”

It was followed immediately by a thud, and Dimo’s voice. “Iz safe!”

Someone laughed. It sounded closest to, but not exactly like, Dana.

It might just be the way the tunnels changed sound as it echoed around corners. Gkika started running anyway.

The tunnel kept twisting, left and right and mostly down, until they went around a curve and spilled out into another large cavern. Gkika, Agatha, and most of the jägers stopped.

Marcu stopped, then lunged across the room and tackled Maria. Three bats dove at him as Maria laughed.

Marcu ignored the bats. “Hyu vos _dead_ , vot iz hyu _doink_ here, mine gott Maria… hoy!” One of the bats had stopped diving, and landed on him to bite his ear. He twisted halfway off of Maria to claw at it and it hopped away, screeching at him.

Maria stopped laughing enough to click several times at the bat, which screamed at her and then launched itself back toward the cave’s ceiling. The other bats diving at Marcu veered away as well. “Vell, Hy vos pretendink!”

Marcu punched her in the head. “Eet haz been _four years_.”

“Vell… Hy vos not plannink on de giant hole ting,” Maria said. “Bot Hy tink de madboy vos not plannink on de bats meking friends either, so iz hokay!”

“Hyu mede friends vit de bats?” Dana asked excitedly. Maxim groaned.

“Yah! Dey like tokking, dey like ennyvun dot toks to dem.”

“Do you think they’d like to move to Mechanicsburg?” Agatha asked.

Maria stopped grinning. “Hy… dun know? Bot Hy ken’t.”

“Ken,” Marcu said. “Dot’s de Heterodyne.”

“Vot, really?” Maria shoved him the rest of the way off of her. Marcu rolled off with a mildly irritated huff, and Gkika got her first good look at Maria. Her legs were missing, and she was covered in scars; Marcu had not been exaggerating when he described the fight that killed her, apparently. Except about the killing part.

It didn’t seen to even have slowed her down. She walked over to Agatha on her hands, sniffed, and then beamed. “Hyu iz! Iz hyu vun ov de biohlojeekal schparks or de metal vuns? Becawze Hy vos verra used to mine old legs, bot eef de metal vuns vould be schtronger dot vould be verra fon too.”

“Ah—” Agatha blinked. “Well, I could make metal ones for you _faster_ , anyway, the spark here has plenty of materials and it _would_ be fair to take them, and we have a few more jägers to find before we stay in Mechanicsburg for long….”

“Yah!” Maria punched the air with one arm, and toppled over. She kept grinning like it hadn’t happened. “Ken Hy jump over buildings vit dem? Dot vould be _so moch fon_ , Hy could ambush _ennyvun_!”

Agatha smiled, like she’d laugh about this later. “I think I can do that, yes.”

“Yah! Hyu iz de best, Hy luff hyu.”

Agatha blinked, then visibly decided not to think too hard about it. “Could you ask the bats about Mechanicsburg? They could ride in the wagons on the way there, I think.” She looked up, where all the bats were hanging from the ceiling, watching silently. “…Maybe if I make a few more wagons.”

“Yah, eazy!” Maria pushed herself back up, looked up, and began clicking. The bats began to click back at her, and Maria started waving her arms while clicking at them. She wobbled once, and Marcu went over to sit behind her and hold her steady.

Gkika moved over to Agatha. “She vill need to get used to de new legs before she ken do moch.” It wouldn’t be as difficult a learning process as becoming a jäger, but it would still be a learning process. Most jägers went through it eventually; Maria had not before.

Agatha nodded, still watching Maria. “I thought so. We’d need to go back to Mechanicsburg for the bats anyway, I thought I’d ask her to stay and help them settle in.”

Gkika nodded. Maria probably wouldn’t have much difficulty with the traveling they were doing, but if the difficulties they expected were the only consideration she’d have brought five jägers, not thirty. And getting to spend time in Mechanicsburg would do all of the recently found ones good; more than getting back and having to immediately leave again. Eugen and Emil and especially Marcu had better stay too, and at least Alina and Toma as well, since they’d been brought along for their connections to Marcu and Eugen. (Gkika herself had been friends with Emil since they'd become jägers, which might be reason for him to leave again with them for the second part of the search; she'd need to talk to him.) Dana might want to stay to help with the bats, so they’d need at least three replacements. Gkika might as well give them all the option to stay, there were plenty of potential replacements to fill the traveling pack back out.

A bat dropped off the ceiling, then another, and then the whole pack of them swooped down, and into the tunnel. Maxim dove out of the way with a yelp.

“Dey iz gun come to Mechanicsburg,” Maria said, grinning.

Agatha watched the last of the bats vanish into the tunnel, still clicking. “I see. Well, shall we follow them?”

“Yah—hoy, no, Hy ken valk!” Maria said, and punched Marcu as he started to pick her up. “Vot hyu tink, de bats haff been movink me? Dey iz not big enough, und eef dey vos ve vould haff gone out!”

“Hyu dun haff _legs_ ,” Marcu said. “Und if hyu hed let me carry hyu avay from de _fight_ hyu vould not haff schpent four years in a cave!”

“Hy haff arms, dey vork!”

Gkika sighed. “Marcu, let her valk. Maria, he iz beink clingy.”

“Em _not_ ,” Marcu whined.

“Hyu iz!” Maria grinned. “Aw Marcu, so senseetive—”

“Hy ken schtill ponch hyu _chust fine_.”

“Go, both ov hyu,” Gkika said. They kept bickering, but they obeyed.

Agatha slipped out after them, followed by the rest of the jägers. Gkika grabbed Dimo as he went past, so that they were the last to leave.

He gave her a look that he probably thought was pitiful. “Vat evil iz hyu plannink now?”

Gkika grinned, and tugged him toward the tunnel. “Now ve is tokking about knowink vat all hyu leedle brudders ken do, und how dey vork together, und how to put dem together in packs zo dey are de most effective, und eef vun haz to leave de pack, vhich ken replace him.”

Dimo groaned.

**Author's Note:**

> For those wondering: Gkika switching from the Lady Heterodyne/the Heterodyne to Agatha in her thoughts is essentially a comment on whether or not Agatha is particularly playing up the role of the Heterodyne in that instance. I figure Gkika is old enough that she's been viewing all the Heterodynes as kids for a long time, so she would usually think of Agatha as Agatha; Agatha becomes the Heterodyne when what she's doing at the time makes her title particularly relevant. ("What she's doing at the time" usually is "terrifying someone," but I think Gkika was also thinking of her as the Heterodyne for a moment back in Jäger Search when Agatha was asking about the missing jagers and said she'd figure out a way to get them back.)


End file.
